20121227

Donna VanZant (r), hugged by Obama in pre-election Hurricane Sandy visit,
complains he abandoned her after her photo helped him win re-election

The significance of candidate Barack Obama comforting victims of Hurricane Sandy was an unexpected boon to his campaign which I don't seem to be noticing in post-election analyses. Despite President Obama’s pledge of the full support of the federal government, many hard-hit victims of the Oct. 29th storm had not received help by mid-December. The victims have had to deal with red-tape the president said would not be tolerated. Victim, Donna Vanzant, whom Obama hugged before cameras, charges Obama as having exploited her for his campaign, and has not delivered.

"Six weeks after Sandy hit the New Jersey and New York coast, residents are still struggling and in desperate need of shelter. ... In the Red Hook community of Brooklyn, N.Y., many residents are still living in their unheated, powerless homes in freezing temperatures. Help from the government for residents has not come.One victim from the Midland Beach section of Staten Island is living out of his car, going from one house to another each day in search of a warm bed. Dozens of residents are living in their sewer-flooded homes without heat or power in Gerritsen Beach.

Family in public FEMA tent after Sandy (Brian Sotelo)

Thousands living in hotels courtesy of FEMA are about to lose their rooms. Hotel stays for victims are set to expire on Dec. 13. That would force tens of thousands into the cold, which could prove a public relations disaster for the Obama administration and FEMA.“Some people are camping in their homes,” said Kirby Desmarais, volunteer coordinator for Red Hook Volunteers, a group affiliated with the Red Hook Coalition. Desmarais did not have an exact number of those in Red Hook who are living in homes without power or heat in freezing temperatures. But she said it is “a lot.”Red Hook, located a few blocks from New York Harbor and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, was hit hard. The harbor flooded homes and damaged residents’ furnaces and basement electrical boxes. Many residences remain in the dark.When asked how well the government is responding to the crisis, Desmarais said that it is a “hard question to answer. … We had no help for 12 days. The Red Cross and the National Guard, they came too late to help.”

Would the media be hiding matters of the government's failures in implementing campaign-promised aid without red-tape if George Bush were still president? As Obama won, the mainstream media protecting him instead advanced feel-good stories of Secret Santa handing out money. They promoted celebrity fundraising concerts with Obama campaigners Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bonjovi. The mainstream media advanced Obama's narrative by under-reporting stories about his unfulfilled promises of disaster-aid follow-up, just as they under-reported stories pertaining to Israeli humanitarian efforts to aid victims - and Islamists' glee in the damage to America- as a step towards its conquest by Islam.Muslim Clerics: Sandy is Divine Punishment,Israel National News, 11/2/12

Salman al-Audah blames Sandy on Americans not accepting
Islam while his rich country, Saudi Arabia, sent US no aid

Prominent Saudi Arabian cleric Salman al-Audah said the storm, which killed more than 140 people, was a wake-up call for Americans to convert to Islam.

"To all those who pray that Hurricane Sandy will bring disaster, I quote the words of the Prophet [Muhammad about] the idolaters in Mecca: 'I hope that [Allah] produces from their loins [sons] who worship Him [i.e., who become Muslims],'" he wrote, according to remarks translated by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Another Saudi cleric, Nasser Al-'Omar, likewise regarded the storm as divine punishment, and even issued a fatwa stating that the Muslims must be glad and thank Allah for it.

"We must rejoice at anything that harms these arrogant and tyrannical oppressors," MEMRI quoted him as having said.

Various Israeli non-governmental agencies (NGOs) working to bring relief to victims and supplies to emergency workers in New York and New Jersey. Karen Levy reports from Israel News Agency:

One week after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo rejected a formal offer by Israel to assist in emergency disaster relief, other authorities in New York State formally asked Israel for "all aid and or assistance."

The Israel Defense Forces which has been on-site helping thousands of disaster victims in several countries including Haiti, Turkey, Japan and most recently in Ghana to assist in search-and-rescue efforts following the collapse of a multi-story shopping center in the city of Accra. Following Governor Cuomo's rejection for assistance from Israel, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers remained without electricity, food, water and shelter.

Israel, Chabad provide key humanitarian aid to Hurricane Sandy victimsby Fern Sidman in NY Jewish Voice 11/09/12
Reaching out to the beleaguered victims of Hurricane Sandy with direct and immediate aid, “Israel Flying Aid,” the Israeli global humanitarian organization which was first to arrive in Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, has been distributing large supplies of gas to hospitals, as well as food, batteries and generators to those in the tri-state area who were adversely impacted by the “storm of the century.”According to a report by the Israel News Agency, Israel Flying Aid North American Operations Manager Moti Kahana said, “We have many years of disaster relief experience. Israel Flying Aid, in having Israelis on the ground here in New York and New Jersey, has made Israel the only foreign nation, outside of Canada, to provide humanitarian assistance to the U.S. during this disaster. We are working in coordination with FEMA, local police, the American Red Cross and Jewish communities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.” Kahana added that most of the efforts had been donated by Israelis living in the United States and this enabled gas to be distributed to hospitals in New York and New Jersey.Op/Ed by an American gentile appeared in Arutz Sheva on Dec 18th.We think it is highly appropriate at this time of the year that we send THANKS to all of the countries that have reciprocated for our help with their disasters, misgivings, social turmoil and poverty by returning the favor.....by sending the United States of America monetary and physical help when Sandy ravaged our East Coast leaving death, homelessness, destruction and pure disaster.

Listed below are the names of the countries and worldwide organizations that gave us gracious assistance.

Please help me in thanking these entities by passing on this email so people from all over America can join in and THANK our friends and neighbors.....to whom we have given BILLIONS!

Here they are, listed:

1. Israel 2. ? 3. ? Popular video-blogger, Wild Bill for America, elaborates this message with this video acknowledgment of Israel (which also notes the absence of assistance from America's Muslim "allies").

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